resumption of works in WM yard !

Our tremendous yard was taken over by Wielemans workers team. But it’s not an easy yard : we have first to unlock the cylynder of the Carels&Frères steam machine. It’s pure engineering. This piston has been disconnected since +/- 1955 and has not moved since this time. Located in the middle of the machine room, « the Carels » has been affected by water leaking trough holes in the roof : the zinc components have been stolen in the 1980. The Carels is heavily rusted wich makes things more complicated. It requiers the team to mobilise inputs, strong knowledge and ad-hoc tools.

Momo has gone down to the wheel pit, a narrow space, to inject lubricant into the mechanism, then warm it with a blow torch and hammered it when and where it was needed.

Finally, after a matinee working, the racagnac has moved again. This lever drives the wheel, one notch after another, till the neutral position.

At this point, steam can be injected into the cylinders in order to move pistons and then the wheel.

The workmen, managed by our mechanic expert Dino now trie to unlock those pistons.

The first working hypothesis was to reach the head of pistons but it has now been proved impossible : this head is way too huge and heavy and, despite our best efforts, we could not move it. We’ll now try something else : working with a pnematic pump and a windlass, starting from the piston’s head.

Stay tuned, exciting news are to be released on our blog!